1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a seat with a side airbag and more particularly to a seat with a side airbag which is adapted to be interposed between a vehicle body and an occupant on the seat so as to absorb an impact which is applied at the time of a side impact.
2. Description of the Background Art
Conventionally, there are known seats with a side airbag which is adapted to be interposed between a vehicle body and an occupant on the seat so as to absorb an impact at the time of a side impact (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Unexamined Publications Nos. JP-A-8-258660 and JP-A-10-181503 and United State Examined Publication No. U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,151).
For example, in a seat with a side airbag that is disclosed in the JP-A-8-258660, an airbag unit is disposed at a side of the seat, a pad member is provided in front of and on an outside of a side of the airbag unit, and the pad member so provided is covered with a skin. Consequently, when inflating, the airbag inflates by push opening the pad member in front and the pad member on the outside of the side thereof.
In addition, in a seat with a side airbag disclosed in the JP-A-10-181503, an airbag unit is disposed at a side of a seat, the airbag unit is covered with a reinforcement fabric, and the outside of the reinforcement fabric is covered with a skin.
FIG. 8 shows a seat with a side airbag that is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,151. As shown in FIG. 8, a side frame 102 is mounted on a side of a seat frame 101, and an airbag unit 103 is mounted on this side frame 102. The airbag unit 103 has an inflator 104 which injects an inflating gas and an airbag 106 which is inflated by the gas injected from the inflator 104 in such a manner as to project forwards of a seat 105. A hard housing 110 is provided back of the airbag unit 103, a reinforcement fabric 107 covers the airbag unit 103 from the back of the housing 110, and the reinforcement fabric 107 is made to be opened in a direction in which the airbag 106 is inflated. In addition, a pad member 108 is provided on an outside of the reinforcement fabric 107, and an outside of the pad member 108 is covered with a skin 109.
Incidentally, in the seat with a side airbag disclosed in the JP-A-8-258660, since the pad member is provided on the outside of the airbag unit and an impact of inflation of the airbag that is caused when the airbag inflates momentarily is absorbed, there are caused drawbacks that the response is deteriorated and that the inflating direction of the airbag becomes unstable.
In addition, in the seat with a side airbag disclosed in the JP-A-10-181503, while the reinforcement fabric is used in order to increase the response of the deployment of the airbag and to stabilize the inflating direction of the airbag. However, since no pad member is provided on a side of the seat, it is difficult to retain the side of the seat in a desired shaped.
Furthermore, in the seat with a side airbag disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,045,151, since the pad member 108 is provided on the outside of the reinforcement fabric 107 and the impact of the airbag 106 is absorbed when the airbag 106 inflates, there is causes a drawback that the response is deteriorated.
To cope with this, there are proposed seats with a side airbag in which a hard cover is used from the viewpoint of response and shape retention, and in this case, the whole of the seat with a side airbag is enlarged and hence the degree of freedom in design is reduced, and there is caused a risk that the airbag may be caught on the hard cover when it inflates.